Both lawyers and accountants are increasingly turning to property as a means of funding their golden years, research released today has discovered.

The study by Bower Private Clients found that 29 per cent of lawyers and 34 per cent of accountants are planning to use property to fund some or all of their retirement.

"Accountants can earn significant incomes and can accumulate a wealth of assets like property and increasingly are looking to property as a source of retirement income," said Andrea Rozario, corporate chief at Bower Private Clients. "This reflects the changing attitudes across the rest of the population with the wealth tied up in homes seen as a potential source of retirement funding which is driving increasing demand for retirement lending solutions."

Rozario added: "Lawyers can be among the top earners and can tend to have greater spending power for assets such as property."

However, the two groups differed in their levels of confidence in their future financial planning. While more than half (53 per cent) of the accountants surveyed said they were confident about their retirement plans, nearly a third (31 per cent) of lawyers confessed that they were not confident in their retirement planning ability.

Meanwhile, 43 per cent of lawyers said they had reviewed their retirement plans in the last year, compared with 50 per cent of accountants.